Nachküssen
by Melissa Black13
Summary: When Zelena attacks Hook, there's only one thing Emma can do to save him. Speculation for 3x20.


******A/N: **This is purely wishful thinking on my part for a TLK on Sunday...

**Summary:** When Zelena attacks Killian, there's only one thing Emma can do to save him. TLK speculation.

**Nachk****üssen **(german) || _a kiss to make up for those that have not occurred..._

**Nachk****üssen**

"Well, if you're not going to kiss her, what use are you to me?" Zelena sneered, waving her hand at Hook.

He was thrown back, and Emma could only try to cushion his fall as he collapsed to the ground, eerily still.

"Killian!" Emma exclaimed, cradling his head in her hands. She glared up at Zelena, hatred welling up inside her. "What did you do to him?"

"I'm merely trying to give you some extra incentive, dear," the witch told her sweetly, before her face contorted threateningly. "Kiss your pirate, or watch him _die_."

Before Emma could do anything, Zelena, now with a mocking smile on her face, disappeared in a thick cloud of green smoke. Once she was gone, Robin, Regina, and David were freed from her immobilizing spell, but Hook remained unconscious, his face unnaturally pale.

"Killian," Emma said urgently, shaking the pirate's shoulders gently, and then with more force. "Killian, wake up! Killian!"

She heaved a sigh of relief when his eyes slowly twitched opened, the blue unusually foggy with fatigue. He stared up at her, confusion marring his features.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice thick with grogginess.

"She-she hit you with something," Emma stuttered out, the urge to panic overwhelming her, Zelena's parting words echoing over and over again in her mind. "You collapsed. She said—I think you're, I think you might be—"

"Dying," Killian finished for her, his tone strangely resigned.

Emma shook her head stubbornly. "No, that's not gonna happen."

"There's nothing you can do, love," he said weakly, looking up at her with those sorrowful eyes of his.

"Yes, there is," she said, her thoughts going a mile a minute, but it was obvious what had to be done because no, he was not dying on her. Not after all they'd been through, not now when she was just beginning to accept how much he loved her and how much he meant to her. There was no way in hell she was going to let him die.

"You can't—," he started to protest, but his body suddenly seized and he closed his eyes tightly in pain.

She gasped, almost feeling like she was the one in pain, tears welling up in her eyes at seeing him in such agony. Emma looked up to Regina desperately. "Can't you do something?" she asked, but Regina only shook her head.

"Not without knowing what spell she used on him," she said, looking down at them with a torn expression on her face. "Emma, you can't be thinking of doing what Zelena said. You'll get your magic taken away."

But Emma was scarcely listening, peering down at Killian, her hands cupping his cheeks. "Maybe not," she whispered more to herself than to anybody else.

Killian opened his eyes again, looking paler and paler by the minute, but Emma leapt into action, helping him into a kneeling position.

"Love, what are you doing?" he asked softly, swaying unsteadily, looking like he was going to faint again any second.

"Everyone's always telling me to take a leap of faith," Emma said, getting on her knees as well so that they were facing each other, her hands on his shoulders to hold him up. "Well, I'm finally ready."

He stared at her desperately, shaking his head. "Swan, no," he pleaded. "They need you. They need your magic. I'm expendable."

She blinked away tears at his words. "Not to me," she whispered, trying and failing to imagine her world without Killian Jones in it. She needed to make him see, because if he didn't have faith, this wouldn't work. "When you first found me in New York, you kissed me," she reminded him, grabbing his hand in hers and laying it over her heart. "You believed then, and I need you to believe now. In me. In _us_. Can you do that?"

"Yes," he breathed, gazing into her eyes like she made the sun rise and set, and that should have scared her, but instead it just gave her more strength.

"Good," she said, using her free hand to yank him forward by his collar.

Their lips met fiercely, and instantly, she felt the dark magic Zelena had cursed his lips with clash with the light magic inside of her. There was a moment where she wasn't sure which magic would win, when suddenly, a wave of pure magic shot out from where their lips connected, and Emma knew Killian's curse had been broken.

Rather than pull away though, she pulled him closer, tilting her head to gain as much access to his mouth as possible, not caring who was watching because it had worked! Her plan had worked, and Killian was responding to her eagerly, his hand sliding up from her heart to cup the back of her head.

Emma poured everything she had into the kiss, every missed opportunity when she'd been too scared to see what was standing in front of her. It was their first kiss all over again, full of passion and desire. It was the kiss she should have given him after she'd saved him from Pan's shadow in Dark Hollow. It was the celebratory kiss they should have shared after they'd escaped from Neverland. It was the comforting kiss he would have given her if she'd relayed her fears about Henry's behavior after they'd returned to Storybrooke. It was the heartbreaking kiss they should have shared at the town line when her eyes had darted down to his lips.

It was his first attempt at a True Love's Kiss, the one he'd planted on her when he'd finally found her in New York. It was the tearful reunion kiss she should have given him after taking the memory potion. It was the kiss they should have shared in the forest because yes, her heart did still work. It was the flirty kiss she should have given him at the docks the morning before he'd been cursed. It was every kiss they'd ever shared and every one that they should have, and it was perfect and true.

When they finally pulled back, Emma opened her eyes to find Killian gazing back at her, the brilliant blue of his eyes overcome with surprise, and _love, so much love._ His fingers touched his lips in disbelief.

"I told you, you couldn't handle it," she whispered breathlessly.

"Too right, lass," he replied, a smile spreading over his face. His fingers moved to tuck some of her hair behind her shoulder. "Too right."

Emma didn't know how they were going to defeat Zelena, but she knew they could. She had her magic, she had her pirate, and she had her faith, and maybe that's all she'd really needed after all.


End file.
